Remarks Upon Arrival at the Airport in Mexico City

Mr. President, Senora, distinguished guests:

It is a great pleasure for Mrs. Kennedy and for myself to come once again to this ancient city, and this beautiful country, and we look forward to seeing the changes which have taken place since our wedding trip nearly a decade ago. Certainly the first change is the size and warmth of the welcome here at the airport.

We come as good neighbors and follow in the footsteps of one of my most distinguished predecessors, Franklin Roosevelt, who prophesied that the day would ultimately come when Presidents of Mexico and the United States would freely meet and freely communicate upon their common responsibilities and common opportunities.

I do this, Mr. President, today, with the greatest of ease, not only because of my high regard for you, but also because I believe that there is so much which unites this great country with my own. We share a border of 2,000 miles. Over 3 million of our citizens in the United States are descended from your citizens. Most of all, we are both children of revolution, and it is my hope that the spirit of our revolution in the United States is as alive today in our country as is the spirit of your revolution here in Mexico. That revolution in our country and, in a sense, in yours, was primarily political, a declaration of political liberty.

It is our responsibility, Mr. President, I believe, in the sixties, and the responsibilities of others in our sister republics in this great hemisphere, to recognize that there is also a necessity for an economic revolution, if political independence, political equality, national sovereignty are all to have true significance and true meaning.

As you yourself have said, Mr. President, until every child has a meal and every student has an opportunity to study, and everyone who wishes to work can find a job, and everyone who wishes a home can find one, and everyone who is old can have security-until that is done in this hemisphere from the top to the bottom, our revolutions and the revolution of this hemisphere are incomplete.

So we come, Mr. President, on a mission of friendship and also of great purpose. And it is a source of satisfaction to come to this country which has demonstrated in its own time and in its own life how closely bound are the concepts of political and economic independence and equality and, indeed, hope.

So, Mr. President, I salute you and I salute this country.